I ran across this article and thought it was worth sharing. God created us and he knows what benefits his creation and what wounds it. This is a good explanation of why God commands his children to be sexually pure from the Creator’s point off view. I will add a few comments of my own after the article. [The article was written by Jeremy Wiles, Soul Refiner CEO. Published Nov. 27, 2017 and modified April 25, 2022]
Have you ever wondered why sexual sin is against your own body?
1 Corinthians 6:18 warns of negative physical consequences to sexual sin – a desecration of the Holy Temple, our body, which houses the Holy Spirit. “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.”
Now science confirms exactly how sexual sin harms us. It damages your brain. Whether it be premarital sex, adultery, or viewing pornography, sexual sin alters our brain function and, when indulged in repeatedly, can lead to a seared conscience – an actual brain phenomenon that numbs us to guilt and conviction of wrong doing.
Oxytocin and Vasopressin
When porn is viewed, several. things happen in the brain involving powerful hormones – two of which are Oxytocin and Vasopressin. Often called the “love hormone,” Oxytocin is released when we hug or kiss a loved one. It regulates social interaction and sexual reproduction, playing a role in empathy, generosity, orgasm, and human bonding.
Vasopressin is a hormone found in most mammals which is also used as a medication: it numbs the pain. When we watch pornography, and “act out. ” the sexual sin releases a powerful concoction, creating a perplexing issue for the human body.
Rewiring Your Brain
Fundamentally, the bonding hormones of Oxytocin and Vasopressin form a rewiring of the brain when consuming the wrong material, that lures the individual deeper into a prison of their own making. An intoxicating combination of hormones – intended to bring loved ones closer together and promote mental healing – are instead operating out of sinful activity, completely confusing the mind.
Dr. Doug Weiss, Executive Director of Heart to Heart Counseling Center and expert contributor to the Conquer Series, a cinematic series that helps men break free from pornography, elaborates:
“When you have a sexual experience, your brain makes these opiates which [are] four times stronger than morphine. Boom! It hits your brain, your brain lights up like a Christmas tree. This is the highest chemical reward your brain gets for anything. That’s why a lot of guys get in trouble, even in ministry. They don’t know their brain is defective.”
When the brain has been changed in this way, sexual sin takes a profound toll. The individual knows that watching porn is a shameful act and one to be kept secret, yet each time they view it, they find themselves trusting it more, pairing with the porn stars or the activity with a deep mental bond, and feeling healed by sexual sin; they are trapped in a destructive cycle.
What is a seared conscience?
There is a part of your brain that is responsible for convicting you of wrongdoing. It’s a little voice inside of you we call our conscience. If you continue to participate in that wrong behavior, however, eventually you become desensitized to this convicting presence. That part of your brain simply stops responding. In effect, your conscience is seared just as the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:2. “Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with hot iron.”
That’s not all. When this area of your brain stays active chronically, you will eventually impair your ability to feel pleasure as well. Dr. Tim Jennings, explains: “People who damage their pleasure centers in this way, will often be disinterested in healthy relationships, will often become apathetic, and they will seek more high risk behaviors or drugs or other types of things to stimulate the pleasure centers so they can feel this.”
Sexual Sin Becomes an Idol
As our brains transform, so does our behavior. The changes can be subtle or obvious, but there is a great deal of energy that needs to be invested in keeping a secret life of pornography addiction. Masks need to be worn. Pretense needs to be maintained. Byproducts of isolation, secrecy, shame, and guilt may begin to show outwardly, and a very real fear of being exposed gnaws away at you. Sexual sin becomes our god, taking place of our Lord as the thing we fear, need, and use as medication for healing our wounds.
Dr. Weiss tells us…”[Pornography and other sexual sins] can get into a man’s heart to the place where it replaces God; it becomes an idol.And how do you know it’s an idol? When you are in pain, you go to your idol. When you are in need, you go to your idol. When you are hurt, you go to your idol. When you want to celebrate, you go to your idol.”
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This article has summarized, in a succinct way, what happens to us psychologically and physiologically when we are involved in prolonged sexual sin. In addition, we open ourselves up to demonic affliction and oppression. As we willingly violate God’s standards for sexual purity, we inadvertently come into agreement with Satan. That agreement, gives the enemy a legal right to assign demons to us who come to amplify and reinforce the emptiness, the shame, and the inadequacy that drives us to our addictions. Once we run to the addiction for comfort, the enemy will again amplify our shame, our fear of rejection, and our emptiness so that we are driven back to the addiction again and again. That spiritual stronghold will not come down without the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our experience is that most who have been in long-term addiction to sexual sin of all kinds will require deliverance to be fully free from their bondage. They will also need healing from the Holy Spirit for the emotional deficit that they have medicated for years with their addictions. They will also need a spiritual support group with whom they can be totally honest and covered with prayer. A renewal of the mind will also be necessary as they spend significant time in the Word of God. We have seen many set free, but the spiritual dimensions of sexual sin must be addressed.
I hope this article and my few comments were helpful in understanding the hurtful dimensions of sexual sin and how it impacts us at every level.